Archive for April, 2008

I have waited and waited for this release and finally it has arrived. So is it time at last to get the Visa out an do that upgrade? As some of you know I was torn between the HP Ipaq 614c and the Asus P750, the review on the Ipaq 614c demonstrated why, although a good device, wasn’t quite the one for me. Is the alternative any better….?

Asus P750

Introduction

Probably dubed the Asus flagship, there appear to have been many issues with getting this device to the shops. I have been waiting from memory since around September last year. Matt finally dropped the device off a week or so ago before we both went off on work jollies.

What’s in the box?

Fairly standard Asus fare, which has to be said provides lots of goodies, all included:

Asus P750

User manual and Quick start guide

Getting started CD and a Bonus CD

Mains charge adaptor with mini USB connector

Stereo headphone 2.5mm

Standard USB to mini USB cable for sync/charge

Car suction mount

Car Phone holder cradle

Car cigarette charger with mini USB connector

Phone slide in pouch

All of which is nice to see, as not only making sure you have the holder, chargers etc. it saves a few pounds in not having to buy these as accessories. The really picky piece is the pouch which has no real use for me, put a belt clip on it, at least! Beggars can’t be choosers.

On the left side of the phone finds the Voice command which is customisable, and an up/down jog wheel with press enter. And a ‘P750 3.5G pda phone’ logo.

Asus P750 left side

The right side is much more crowded, containing on uncovered microSD slot card, for hot swapping your cards. Above this is the Camera function button and then reset hole. Next is one of the best bits that I have grown to really appreciate on my P526, that being a slider switch to completely lock both keys and touchscreen. Thus doing away with buttons being pressed accidentally, however don’t forget to flick it up to answer an incoming call. On top of all this an external GPS socket if needed.

Asus P750 right side

The bottom is again pretty standard for Asus as the headset jack socket and the mini USB socket for charging and PC connection can be found here. The stylus which is non-telescopic and the mic also included.

Asus P750 bottom

On the back you will find the 1300 mAh battery cover and the 3 mega pixel camera, with no flash or mirror. A speaker grill is also housed on the back, which I have heard questioned with regard to being able to hear this type of device when it is placed on a desk, can’t say I had any real issues here.

Asus P750 back

At the business end, the front of the device is the front facing camera for video telephony if you chose to use it. The 2.6” screen is slightly smaller than that found on the Ipaq 614c. But is clear and bright, now available, as mentioned my Matt on the unboxing is the ROM update.

The Asus P750 has made the news a lot lately mainly because of its VGA screen which was initially set up as QVGA screen. Now with a ROM update you can use the P750 in its full 480×640 glory.

I suppose it appropriate here to mention that this is unofficial and therefore only to be done at your own risk. Being a loan unit, I have not been able to verify this, but there is plenty of news available.

The P750 has a 20 button, white backlit, keypad and includes and joystick type application entry. Included are the usual left and right soft keys. Which default to the Asus launcher and contacts. Between these are the windows start button and OK buttons, all highlighted in chrome.

Asus P750 keypad

Below these are the telephone end and send buttons, numerical keypad, and a useful mode switcher button to quickly switch between applications and is again customisable.

Software

The Asus launcher is again a handy addition to the phone and will suit normal phone users as it allows quick assess to settings, messages, camera etc. I didn’t use it that much as I am used to the Windows mobile interface, and was slightly surprised to see that the loan unit wasn’t equipped with wm6.1, but I gather it is only a matter of time before the update will be available.

Apart from the standard windows features, there are the additions of a backup/ restore program, which speaks for itself. There is a handy GPS catcher which can be set to update the satellite positions when ever sync’ed with your PC or set to update through the normal channels automatically on expiration. There is no pre-installed GPS software, Google maps was downloaded and installed in a matter of minutes thanks to the impressive connection and download speeds achievable. No issues at all regarding connection switching here either.

3 other pieces of software that I haven’t come across before are:

1. Ur Time – which allows you to see different time zones across the world, which can then be displayed on the today screen, apparently designed to allow synchronization of meetings, video calls or teleconferencing around the world. Very useful I supposed of the international traveller/ business man? The one place I travelled to in using the phone wasn’t an option on the menus, so I you can take this and use it as you see fit, not much good for me.

2. Travelog – allows you to track and record your travel patterns and download them to Google earth on your PC. Tried it briefly couldn’t get it to work, didn’t see the point, gave up. A bit of fun for those interested I suppose, really bad if you have been to places you shouldn’t have and logged for evidence.

3. Location Courier – Allows you to send your position to up to 5 people via SMS, also included is a timer to send periodically. There is a small icon at the bottom of the screen to highlight the status of your Courier. The best part is the manual demonstrating its use. The sample Text message reads ‘I am here, HELP!’ again make of this as you will. If you are ever stranded and need help no doubt it is invaluable, but why not just ring?

More useful tools found are the RSS reader, and My Secrets, a password lockable folder for personal or private files that you may wish to store away from prying eyes.

Highlights

Processor: Marvell PXA270M 520MHz

Sound clarity

Lowlights

Only 64 MB RAM

1.1 USB

Unremarkable

REVIEW

My first impressions, after reading in various reviews have ‘chunky’ it was, was a pleasant surprise, the device is on the large side but I would say more solid than chunky and certainly smaller than the iPAQ. In actual fact put beside my P526 there is very little difference in appearance being marginally longer and thicker but no wider. Comparing it Matt’s old faithful, TYTN II, pretty much identical, apart from being 3mm longer, but benefits from being a full 60g lighter.

It does have a soft touch feel to the case and the chrome accents on certain pieces makes for a professional looking device. My first thought was I have no issue with the look and size of the device, this has continued with a fair amount of use. The buttons are responsive and positive. The layout of the buttons is logical and easy to use, the only thing missing for me is a separate dedicated on/off button. On the P750 this is included within the slider button which double’s in locking the keys.

The voice clarity for me was a highlight, and has been an issue on some of the devices that I have reviewed recently, on the Asus even on a relatively low signal, I had not had the usual ‘what did you say’ or ‘say again, you are breaking up’ which was a good step forward for me.

The processor found on the P750 was well up to the job, appearing very quick and positive to use, a lot of devices these days are improving in this area and again a good step forward. The 64 MB RAM is a standard disappointment with these Asus devices and although more would be preferable, I have not noticed any real lag, or had any memory issues in normal use.

Being the so called flagship of the Asus range, a little more future proofing would have been welcomed, and a comment read earlier this week sums it up ‘ who the hell uses USB 1.1 these days?’ Answer: Asus.

Conclusion

Where are we now, would I buy having waited for so long? Is it worth MY money?
Well, I was really surprised by the size, having read about it being big. I don’t think it is and prefer it over the Ipaq and the Eten.

It is a very quick and reliable pda, it is not the best on battery life in my experience about a day normal use would do it, and the camera is average.

I think for me, being a P526 user for some time now, the wifi etc are welcome additions, but not really used that much, the processor speed is also much improved, but at the cost of more size and weight. I do feel that it could be smaller.

Bottom line would I buy one, as it appears I have meddled with my P526 once too often and may have bricked it, then yes, if it came to the choice of a straight upgrade, then I feel that there is not enough innovation for the change to be justified at this point. I am disappointed that it is so similar to my P526 that it is unremarkable, or perhaps what that really means is that is it so efficient and reliable I am taking it for granted already?

Maybe I have to wait, yet again and see what the recently mentioned HTC Diamond has to bring?

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In a press release today, GSmart announced their new UI for Windows Mobile Professional devices; Smart Touch.

You can see their video demonstation here on YouTube and read the press release below:

GSmart has announced newly developed UI software – Smart Touch, a new interface that is intuitive, informative and flexible, a more user friendly interface that surely add-value to GSmart products and great benefit to GSmart users when it comes available in April.

GSmart, as one of the PDA phone supplier, it has established a sound position in the market when its famous world’s first (and still the only one) DVB-T roaming PDA phone were introduced to the public, and after since, GSmart has been harvesting the market productively and actively, it has introduced several new models, and each with unique features. GSmart’s hard work and ability in continuous innovation are well recognized in the industry.

Growing with the PDA phones and Smartphone market, GSmart has recently developed a new UI – Smart Touch, which is a finger friendly interface that works like iPhone, but it’s intuitive, informative and flexible features, makes GSmart phone much more personal than iPhone, it is a more integrated version with useful and interesting features.

INTUITIVE

Smart Touch is an interface that users can customize by adding in 16 most frequently used apps as shortcuts on standby screen, with the shortcuts list displaying at the bottom of the screen, users are able to find the shortcuts they want to activate by swiping across the screen and launch the program simply by tapping on the icon!

Icon-to-Icon

Furthermore, Smart Touch has iconized the shortcut list; users can add the shortcut from the list by dragging the shortcut icon to the activate icon, and vice versa: – the shortcut icon can be deleted by dragging to the icon to the trash bin icon. Users are able to manipulate their phone more intuitively and user friendly.

INFORMATIVE

As the main users of PDA phones are mostly business users, GSmart has planned to utilize the middle of the screen to display as much information as possible. For Smart Touch, it can now show the clock in two types of clock face, which are digital or hand clock, user can switch the two types of clock face simply by swiping fingers to the left and to the right. GSmart promise that it will develop further and more informative features should be able to display on the screen.

FLEXIBLE

For those that still adapted to the original interface, it is flexible to switch in between the original interface and Smart Touch. However, GSmart has confidence that the user friendliness of Smart Touch will keep the users no returning to the original interface!

Like the most phone features, users also can customized its own Smart Touch screen, set their own theme, color or even use their favorite pictures as the background. The flexibility and customization is to have the users enjoying more of the new interface!

GSmart revealed that the Chinese version Smart Touch has accidently leaked to the market in April, and has alre that Smart Touch software available to download in many websites, however, those illegal versions are not fully workable due to the protection coding. However, Smart Touch will introduce to European market after May, and GSmart users are able to experiences the genuine and sensational Smart Touch UI by then!

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More good news for Neonode and Neonode fans, as they’ve just struck a deal in Germany.

The Neonode N2

Neonode, today announced it has entered the largest market in Western Europe by striking a deal with Brodos AG, one of the leading distributors and retailers in Germany. The German market comprises 25.6% of all handset sales in Europe; according to a 2007 industry report by market research firm RNCOS.

Brodos AG has a wide-ranging franchising system of major retailers, including the company’s independent mobile chain of 500 outlets, my-eXtra. Brodos is the provider of major brands such as Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG. In addition to its own stores, my-eXtra supplies about 5,000 German dealers with mobile phones and enhancements.

The Neonode N2 will initially be sold in my-eXtra’s stores beginning in May and subsequently rolled out in Brodos’ extensive network of independent retailers. The first shipment was made in April.

With subscription at major carriers such as T-Mobile, Vodafone, E-Plus and O2 the Neonode N2 may be available to customers for as low as 1 EURO.

“Neonode N2 is a powerful and versatile multimedia mobile phone with state-of the-art touch screen technology that is likely to be well-received by our network of dealers,” said Stefan Vitzithum, CPO at Brodos AG. “We are confident that the Neonode N2 will be an attractive addition to our portfolio of consumer technology products.”

Neonode’s entry into Germany and Brodos AG is facilitated by Sapera GmbH, a major market entry and sales specialist liaised with all leading mobile operators, major distributors and service providers nationwide. As Neonode’s sales agent Sapera will, as a continuance, broaden the Company’s distribution and marketing reach in Germany.

“We feel that this partnership holds great possibilities and the Sapera-Brodos arrangement enables Neonode a perfect entry into Germany,” said Per Hellberg, Vice President of Sales at Neonode. “It is with great reassurance we are now launching the Neonode N2 in the largest Western European market.”

The Neonode N2 will debut in Germany on April 28 in a pre-launch campaign on the exclusive online fashion and lifestyle shopping community BuyVIP (www.buyvip.de).

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Hot on the heels of our Sony Walkman review, Sony is giving our blog readers the chance to win the fantastic new NWZ-A829 Walkman Video MP3 player. Packed with features and weighing a mere 58 grams this new arrival will store upto 16GB of music, video and snaps. It even has built in Bluetooth® stereo, so you can listen to your music without the hassle of getting tangled up in those pesky headphone wires.

Sony WALKMAN range

To be in with a chance just follow this link to the Sony Style site to find the answer to this simple question:

Question: What is the LCD screen size of the NWZ-A829Walkman?

Entry is simple. All you have to do is answer the competition question above and then submit your entry using our FEEDBACK FORM. Sony will choose a winner at random from all the correct entries. The competition will close on Monday 5th May and the winner will be announced shortly after.

Remember to include your email address when entering so that we may contact you if you are the lucky winner. Email addresses will NOT be retained or disclosed to any third party.

How often do you go running, either in the gym or where you live? For me the answer is not as often as I should, ok it’s never. I don’t but I’m more of a cyclist, however I still get the same problem as runners; your headphones keep falling out. Not only is it really annoying but can be quite dangerous as well. So when Panasonic sent the RP-H33’s to test out I was happy to get on my bike, so to speak.

Panasonic RP-HS33 headphones

HIGHLIGHTS:

Lightweight

Sweat proof earbuds

Comfortable

Nice sound quality

LOWLIGHTS:

Weak bass

Not the prettiest thing

A colour choice of orange or green

Difficult to put in at first

Panasonic RP-HS33 headphones specification:

Drive Unit (diam. in mm) 14.8

Impedance (ohm/1kHz) 16

Sensitivity (dB/mW) 103

Max. Input (mW) 50

Frequency Response (Hz-kHz) 14-24

Cord Length (ft./m) 3.9/1.2

Weight (oz.) w/o cord 0.71

Water Resistant Yes

Clip-on and Straps Design Yes

Color Green or Orange

Clip-on Design Yes (for all kinds of hair styles)

Comfort-fit Hinge Yes

Magnet Type Neodymium

Sweat Proof Yes

REVIEW

Ok so the colour choice is orange or green, the colour is one thing that many people who have seen them have commented on. The target consumer group the RP-HS33 are aimed at do not care about colour and here’s my thinking as to why! Imagine this for a second, you’re running along listening to your music through your orange RP-HS33’s then out of nowhere a car pulls up along side you. The window rolls down and Claudia Schiffer or Brad Pitt (whoever takes your fancy) pops there head out and asks you directions. Do you then panic about your orange headphones or are you more concerned with sweat all over you and a bright red face? You see my point.

On the subject of running and cycling I have found a little bug bear but only a little one. They are designed to stay in your ear so you can exercise without worrying about them keep popping out, however there is no clip to stop the wires moving about.

I don’t have a vast knowledge of isolation (db), impedance (ohms) or even the Frequency response (Hz), however I know what music I like and how I want it to sound.

The RP-HS33 are lightweight and designed for active people at 23g (inc cable) they are light and you hardly feel your wearing them. However they are still robust enough to be thrown in a bag everyday for a month and still look and sound as good as when you got them.

To the quality now, the mid to high range makes most music sound crisp and clear, but the bass impact is quite poor, I love my bass and was a little disappointed. I listened to a few songs through iTunes on my laptop, True Colors by Phil Collins, Sandstorm by Darude and In The End by Linkin Park these where probably my widest range of music. True Colors sounded clear and as it should be with no complaints, Sandstorm was very crisp and clear but lacked the punch of the bass which is essential for dance music. In The End also had the same problem as Sandstorm where the sound was clear but lacked any punch in the bass.

CONCLUSION

I like these headphones, maybe it’s because they feel like you could stand on them and they would still work (please don’t test this theory out though) or maybe it’s because I can finally concentrate on my cycling instead of counting the time between my headphones falling off. The bass is a big issue for me but I still like them and for any sports enthusiast I would definitely recommend them.

Battery: Removable 1150mAh, li-ion Up to 4 hours talk, or up to 300 hours standby

Expansion: microSD card (up to 4GB supported)

Connector: Multi-connector

Dimensions: 107.2 mm (L) x 53.5 mm (W) x 18.6 mm (D)124 grams

General

The Palm Centro has a fairly unusual 320×320 pixel square display which takes up a good portion of the device. Below the screen are a number of fairly typical soft keys, phone keys, d-pad style navigation and a full QWERTY keyboard.

Palm Centro Keyboard

On the bottom of the device you’ll find socket for the wired MONO headset, a proprietary connector for the USB connections and to the right of that a small connector for the mains charger which is again a custom connector.

Palm Centro bottom

The left side of the Centro has a volume control rocker and a simple soft key for camera control.

Palm Centro left

The right side has very little to show, here you’ll just find an IRDA port and the cover over the MicroSD card slot (more on this later).

Palm Centro right side

In a departure from the standard, the top of the device is not home to the power button but instead there is a switch for setting the device to mute/vibrate mode.

Palm Centro top

The back of the Centro is also pretty clean, just the 1.3MP camera and a loudspeaker.

Palm Centro back

The other thing that’s quite striking about the Centro is the case material. Rather than just being a black plastic it has small metalic flecks in it which is quite attractive.

Palm Centro case material

REVIEW

Palm are keen to offer this as a smart phone, with there own Palm OS installed. But in testing I found that it lacked features that are commonly available on competing Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and the Nokia N series devices – as it does not offer WiFi or GPS.

The Palm Centro is thin at (107x53x18mm), is light at 119g, and its smooth plastic case feels comfortable in the hand.

I felt that the Palm Centro is definitely made from cheaper materials than the Treo. I found that the removable battery cover was a bit fragile and somewhat difficult to remove and replace. Also the skinny black plastic stylus feels as though it might snap in two.

I was confused by the small plastic door on the Palm Centro’s side that was abelled ‘Micro SD’. You can pull out the door, but the only way to insert the card is after you’ve first opened the battery cover. Surely it would have made more sense if Palm had designed the door not to open at all unless the user removes the battery cover.

Palm Centro MicroSD slot

Because the Palm Centro is so small, the keyboard keys are small but functional; I did fear at first that typing would be an unpleasant experience. But Palm has done a good job here. The keys are coated in a squishy plastic that keeps your fingertips from slipping; this did not slow me down much when typing emails or texts.

The 2.4in 320×320 colour touch screen looks good, although it’s smallish. The navigation controls – an oval pad; buttons for the phone interface, the main Palm OS menu, the calendar, and email; a red on/off button; and a green Send button – were responsive and easy to use.

I tested the Palms performance as a mobile phone, I made phone calls which where clear and crisp. The people at the other end sounded as good as on a landline, and they commented that the sound coming from my end was good too.

The Palm Centro supports Bluetooth; I tested this by transferring Ring tones and images from the palm to my laptop with excellent transfer speeds.

When I was browsing the Internet with the Palm Centro’s Blazer browser over O2’s network I was delighted that I was getting near Broadband speeds.

Email setup went smoothly, I just entered my ISP details and I was able to send and receive emails, I sat there and was purely using the Palm for a whole after noon to send and reply to email and it handled it just fine, if your use to writing emails on a blackberry then you should be fine with the palm.

Another good thing about the Palm Centro is that it supports concurrent instant messaging sessions with the three supported IM services AOL, MSN and Yahoo, and allowed me to keep in touch with friends and work colleagues.

The Palm Centro comes with the Deluxe version of the PTunes music player, which is a nice addition. All preinstalled music sounded surprisingly robust, I also put on some MP3’s of my own and these also sounded excellent.

The Palm Centro’s also has a 1.3Mp camera captures images at either at 1X or 2X digital zoom which was nothing to really write home about. The palm can also record a short amount of video. Image quality was adequate but nothing special.

The Palm Centro comes with loads of other useful applications, like Google Maps and DataViz’s Documents to Go for at least basic editing of Microsoft Office applications.

Conclusion

Overall the palm Centro is just a palm organiser with a phone added on to it, it’s ok for business and blackberry users, but I suspect that if you’re the type of person that likes a phone to “Do everything” then the palm is not the phone for you. But if all you need is to send text messages, emails edit a word document and browse the internet on the go, then this is the perfect device for you.

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I’ve been using the HTC Shift for the past few weeks but sadly the loan unit is going back tomorrow and I’m genuinely going to miss it. Ignoring showing off on Lombardy’s trains it’s been a real productivity boon. Yes I have some misgivings but overall I’m really going to miss it, I may even shell out some of my hard earned and get myself one.

I’ve almost got used to the keyboard and I can rattle off even sizeable documents without too much trouble and can even carry it with me in my play life as opposed to just work. There do need to be a few tweaks for it to fulfil its original promise however it’s a great piece of kit.

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We first heard about the HTC Diamond a few months ago when we learned from our contact at Orange that a new HTC product had appeared in the ‘coming soon’ section of the Orange price list.

Initial enquiries didn’t reveal much about the origins of the HTC Diamond – my initial thoughts were that this would be an existing HTC device that had been renamed for the Orange market. Our contacts as HTC even said that they had never heard of the HTC Diamond before.

However, we now know a little more about the HTC Diamond and can reveal the following:

You can expect to see an annoucement from HTC in the very near future and this is something that we are going to be very involved with so watch this space for updates over the next few weeks. We suspect that the Diamond will be revealed at the press converence on the 6th May.

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VITO Technology releases new black skin for Audio Notes Touch with absolutely new finger-friendly interface for audio recording on Windows Mobile. Minor bugs have also been fixed.

There are many users longing for black HTC Touch like skins in new finger-friendly applications at http://iwindowsmobile.com. VITO Technology has received a great amount of letters from our customers asking for a black skin of HTC Touch style. Therefore we decided to meet our users’ demands and make black skin for Audio Notes Touch. Enjoy stylish and blackish design of your favorite application!

Minor bug connected with the ability to record on storage cards is fixed. When in autorecord mode Audio Notes Touch closes after saving the recording of the phone call.

Audio Notes Touch is available for $14.95 at http://iwindowsmobile.com/mobile-audio-recorder.html

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The Asus M930 joins the ranks as one of the few devices to have both a numeric phone pad (outside) and a full QWERTY keyboard (inside). It’s a thin and elegant looking candy bar style device which looks more like an ‘ordinary’ phone rather than a Windows Mobile smartphone. BUT, when you open up the M930 it reveals a little secret as hidden away inside is another LCD Screen and a full QWERTY keyboard.

Asus M930

Asus M930 open view

We only had the device the device on loan for a day so no time for a full review, however I’ve recorded an unbox for you and hope to get our hands on another M930 in a few weeks time in order to complete the review.